Joy K. (peanut) reviewed on 11/22/2005 + 71 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

In this groundbreaking book, Robert Fuller takes the analysis of discrimination beyond racism and sexism to reveal a form of injustice that everyone knows, but no one sees: discrimination based on rank, or "rankism." Low rank -- signifying weakness, vulnerability, and the absence of power -- marks people for abuse in much the same way that race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation have long done.

Somebodies and Nobodies explains our reluctance to confront this phenomenon, and argues that abuse based on power differences is no more defensible than that based on differences in color or gender. It unmasks rankism, demonstrating its pervasiveness and corrosiveness in our personal lives, social institutions and international relations. Illuminating the subtle, often dysfunctional workings of power in all our interations -- whether on the individual, societal, or global level -- it dispels the "somebody mystique," presents rankism as the last obstacle to equal opportunity, and offers a vision of a "dignitarian" society.

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